International Football
Don’t Be Intimidated, Eguavoen Urges Super Eagles
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
Former Super Eagles’ player and chief coach, Austin Eguavoen has urged the current class of the team to be focused as they face perhaps their toughest challenge since Coach Gernot Rohr got to the saddle. The Super Eagles face Cameroon’s Indomitable Lions on Friday in the first leg of a back-to-back fixture in 2018 World Cup qualifiers.
“They should expect a tough encounter”, remarked Eguavoen who had in the past been involved in blood and sweat –spilling encounters with Cameroon. “Fixtures involving Nigeria and Cameroon or Ghana and Nigeria as well as Cameroon and Ghana are always classic encounters”, Eguavoen said. Therefore, no one should expect a mere stroll in the pack.
“Don’t be deceived by the paltry two points Cameroon currently have. They are African champions and they take a match with Nigeria very serious”, Equavoen told Sports Village Square.
He said it is good that Nigeria are currently on the drivers’ seat but the Super Eagles have to do a lot to sustain the momentum. The players should realise that they should not just rely on financial reward as motivation for the match, but look forward to qualifying for the World Cup as that will be more fulfilling for their career.
“Their market values will rise should they qualify for the World Cup”, Eguavoen who was the on-field skipper when Nigeria won the Africa Cup of Nations at Tunisia ’94 counselled.
He also pointed out that as Nigeria have respect for the Cameroonian Lions so also are the Cameroonians to Nigeria.
“Cameroon will natural not want to seat back and allow Nigeria to further widen the point gap as the race to Russia 2018 gathers momentum. “They will put a lot of intimidating pressure on us and we have to react well too”, said Eguavoen, a veteran of the 1994 and 1998 World Cup.
He pointed out the fact that Cameroon don’t play fanciful football and that they are often very physical. “Please tell the boys, they should not be intimidated”.
He recalled some of the matches he played for Nigeria against Cameroon. “They play robust football. He recalled the World Cup qualifying encounter Cameroon played with Nigeria at the Lekan Salami Stadium, Ibadan in June 1989.
“They have huge players like Emmanuel Kunde and others. I remember Louis Mfede trying to intimidate me. I reacted and told him this is Ibadan, not Yaoundé, I will ‘kill’ you here!
“He chickened out and moved away from me to the right side of their attack”, recalled Eguavoen. He further said it was an attempt to always intimidate the opposition that informed their controversial sleeveless shirts of the early 2000 which FIFA had to ban.
“They wanted opposing players to see their biceps and feel intimidated. I want the Super Eagles to take a full advantage of the home match because the Yaoundé crowd are also very intimidating. “If we get our results here, the return leg becomes less important to Cameroon”, he reasoned.
Representatives from four national players’ unions on Thursday launched a new global organisation in Madrid, which they say will strengthen footballers’ rights and improve dialogue with governing bodies.
Opening a new front in the battle over who speaks for players, the International Footballers’ Association (AIF) was unveiled, with David Aganzo, president of Spain’s Association of Footballers (AFE) and a former head of the global union FIFPRO, appointed to lead the organisation.
Players’ unions from Brazil, Mexico and Switzerland were also represented.
The initiative drew a swift rebuke from FIFPRO, which said in a statement that Aganzo was acting out of self-interest and aligning himself with organisations linked to football governing bodies, as well as groups expelled from FIFPRO over alleged mismanagement.
Aganzo rejected the criticism, saying he “will not seek confrontation with FIFPRO”.
The launch comes amid strained relations between players’ unions and football authorities, particularly over the expanding international match calendar.
Relations between FIFA and FIFPRO deteriorated in 2024 after the union lodged a complaint with the European Commission, arguing that the global governing body was abusing its dominant position by adding competitions without sufficient consultation.
Aganzo denied suggestions that the new initiative was backed by FIFA president Gianni Infantino, but said “direct dialogue with FIFA” was essential.
AFE’s Extraordinary General Assembly approved the initiative in February with 99.8% of votes cast in favour of spearheading the creation of the AIF.
The same assembly also backed AFE’s withdrawal from FIFPRO, citing what it described as a “complete lack of transparency, as well as its total lack of dialogue with international bodies.”
“We represent over 30,000 footballers, and we come here with a new model aimed at safeguarding players’ rights and facilitating direct communication with all international bodies,” Aganzo told reporters.
“We are in contact with 15 to 20 unions already who were very aware of this moment and waiting for this announcement to make their move and join our initiative.”
He declined to identify any unions beyond those present.
Asked about a report that a senior envoy to U.S. President Donald Trump had urged FIFA to replace Iran with Italy at the upcoming World Cup, Aganzo urged caution.
“These are more political issues; on April 30th, I’ll be speaking to Gianni (Infantino) at the FIFA Congress, and we will discuss those things,” Aganzo said.
“People who want to go to the World Cup have to earn their place on sporting merit.”
-Reuters
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A new trial over the death of Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona will begin on Tuesday, with seven members of his medical team charged with negligent homicide nearly a year after a previous case collapsed in a mistrial.
An enduring presence in Argentina – from towering murals to tattoos, opens new tab – Maradona died on November 25, 2020, at 60, after a heart attack while he was recuperating from brain surgery to remove a blood clot.
A court in San Isidro, near Buenos Aires, will hear testimony from just under 100 witnesses as it tries Maradona’s medical team over alleged negligence in the death of the 1986 World Cup champion.
His medical team has denied wrongdoing. The defendants are psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque, psychologist Carlos Angel Diaz, physician Nancy Edith Forlini, nurse Ricardo Almiron, head nurse Mariano Ariel Perroni, and physician Pedro Pablo Di Spagna. An eighth defendant, nurse Dahiana Madrid, will be tried in a separate jury trial, with no date yet set.
Two months into the first trial, which started last March, a mistrial was declared when one of three judges, Julieta Makintach, resigned after video surfaced showing her being interviewed by a camera crew in the corridors of the courthouse and in her office as part of a documentary, in breach of judicial rules.
The retrial will require both prosecutors and defense lawyers to reassess their strategies after the first trial aired photographs, videos, audio recordings and forensic evidence. Many witnesses, including Maradona’s children and his former wife, Claudia Villafane, have already testified.
Prosecutors argued in the initial trial that medical professionals broke treatment protocols and that the home where Maradona was recovering from surgery amounted to a “theatre of horror,” where necessary care was not provided.
The defense countered that his death was inevitable given his longstanding health problems. Maradona struggled for decades with cocaine and alcohol addiction.
The negligence charges emerged in 2021 after prosecutors appointed a medical board to investigate Maradona’s death. The panel concluded his medical team acted in an “inappropriate, deficient and reckless” manner.
-Reuters
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Aliou Cisse has been named coach of the Angola national team, the country’s football federation (FAF) announced on Thursday, 24 hours after the Senegalese left his post in Libya.
The 50-year-old coach, who led Senegal to their maiden Africa Cup of Nations title in 2022, ended his short stint with the Libyan national team on Wednesday, after taking charge in March 2025.
“Welcome, Aliou Cisse, head coach of the Angola national team,” the FAF said on Facebook. Angola, which failed to reach this year’s World Cup, will start their 2027 AFCON qualifying campaign in September.
-Reuters
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